Father Rob Carbonneau, C.P. is presently an Archival Specialist at the Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History at Boston College.

Fr. Rob received his Ph.D. in American and East Asian History from Georgetown University. He has taught U.S., Chinese, Japanese, Korean, World, and American Catholic mission history at American colleges and universities. Frequently, he gives classes and lectures on the history and contemporary realities of the Catholic Church in China.

His research and international publications focus on the Passionists in China, and the relationship between American Catholic missionaries and the U.S. Department of State in pre-1955 China.

He was a foreign expert professor at Sichuan International Studies University in Chongqing, China from 2007 to 2008. From 2015 to 2018 he served as Executive Director of the U.S.-China Catholic Association in Berkeley, California. 

Father Rob is a recognized international scholar whose research, publications and lectures have focused on the Passionist China Collection. Now located at the Ricci Institute, this collection has over 16,000 photographs and 60,000 letters and documents from Republican Era China, (1912-1949).

He is a Passionist priest and also coordinates the archives of the Passionist Congregation ministries based in the Eastern United States.